Questions tagged [difficulty-rating]
A question about assessing or adjusting the difficulty level of a puzzle.
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Sudoku android App - Difficulty Level
I have an android sudoku app and I'm doing the following to check if the generated sudoku is unique:
Remove a number
Run a solver
Check if the puzzle is still unique
Repeat until solver is unable to ...
9
votes
2
answers
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Design of enigmatic puzzles
I've been trying to practice my enigmatic puzzle design skills, since these are the kinds of puzzles you find in many video games. (That is, puzzles in games don't often come with explicit ...
2
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1
answer
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Cryptic clue for business people?
I have been asked to produce something funny or interesting in a video for work (yay working from home, right?)... so I decided to produce a "Puzzle Hunt". As part of it I was hoping for ...
11
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2
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Can you translate these sentences from an unknown language?
This is a puzzle based around a fictional language. The goal is to learn the language well enough to provide a close English translation of the 4 goal sentences. You do this by cross referencing the ...
7
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1
answer
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How can this puzzle be solved without guessing?
This puzzle was given to my 8 year old from the school. My child was struggling, so I gave it a bash, but was unable. I do sudoku regularly so know most methods of solving. I gave it to my husband and ...
5
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2
answers
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How long should an anagram be in order to be solvable by a human?
I'm writing some puzzles for a bunch of smart friends, but I'm unsure if the puzzle is too easy or too hard. For instance, an anagram like this:
fangos theorem
Should be solvable by a human without ...
9
votes
2
answers
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Generating different difficulties in custom puzzle
first of all this is my first time asking something here so please let me know if I am doing something wrong or asking it on the wrong place.
I have a custom puzzle model where I need to generate ...
2
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3
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Hardest slitherlink you know [closed]
What is the hardest slitherlink board you have seen/solved/tried to solve? I've tried googling for some hard ones but came up with simple ones or sites describing what slitherlink even is... So in ...
12
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In the Undead Game, what makes one board more difficult than another?
In the Undead Game, what makes one board more difficult than another?
The game is defined like this:
A 4x4 (or 5x5, etc) grid has some random squares filled with diagonal lines representing mirrors.
...
4
votes
1
answer
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Estimate beginner, mediocre, advanced & expert on puzzle games
I've created the Hannoi Towers, Lights out and not sure about the original name of this game.
Now, when I want to create badges (beginner, expert etc.) for the puzzlers I stumbled upon a problem, I ...
11
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3
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Puzzle design: How to incorporate confirmation of an answer?
Sometimes when I'm designing a puzzle which has more than one stage, I'd like to incorporate a 'check' for some of the answers (e.g. the answers of the earlier stages).
Example: This puzzle needed 2 ...
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The strength of ciphers against brute force methods - what makes it more difficult but keeps it fair for humans?
EDIT:
We have a couple of cipher puzzles on this site which use primitive, simple ciphers like Caesar, Bacon and substitution ciphers, and some of these puzzles combine them.
This made me wonder ...
11
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3
answers
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What should you look for when rating the difficulty of a puzzle?
After you're finished making a puzzle, what types of details should you look for when rating it's difficulty? What makes a puzzle easier or harder? Keep in mind a puzzle includes both the question and ...
9
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1
answer
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What factors affect the difficulty of Hamiltonian puzzles?
There is a type of puzzle which can be modelled as finding a Hamiltonian path through a graph. One example is the Icosian game. What factors affect the difficulty of such puzzles, to be solved by ...
4
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Is there a rating system for crossword puzzles?
On searching the internet for difficult crossword puzzles I find that the New York Times is often mentioned. But is there a rating system? If so how does it work?
16
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3
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Are there any popular puzzles with polynomial-time algorithms?
First, a little background: as I noted in my answer to another question here, most of the puzzles that seem to stay popular for extended periods of time are canonically 'hard' in an algorithmic sense: ...
6
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Are there 'Hexanum' puzzles that require advanced methods to solve? [closed]
The puzzle below features each week in a TV guide. It's called "Number Workout" there but I've done a bit of research and it seems to be called "Hexanum" elsewhere. It bears some resemblance to Sudoku,...
11
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4
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How to rate difficulty of a classic riddle?
How, as a writer of riddles, can I rate their difficulty?
I guess, for me alone, knowing the answer even before the riddle existed, it's pretty much impossible, and I should need some external help. ...
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What are the criteria for determining the difficulty of Sudoku puzzle?
What are the criteria for determining the difficulty of Sudoku puzzles?
Is it a subjective estimation based on the author's experience, or are there any precise guidelines?
For example, there are ...